Dear Colleagues,

Living organisms have gone through an evolution, over 3.8 Gyr, to use inorganic matrices to fashion a diverse range of highly organized biological minerals that are ideal for biological functions. For instance, teeth made of calcium phosphate mineral enable mammals to tear, chew food and are also used as a weapon, while bones made of calcium phosphate provide a skeleton to support the body. Sea urchins use teeth made of a complex arrangement of calcite and calcium carbonate to grind the seabed in search of food and hollow out holes for sanctuary from predators and waves. The skeletons of deep-sea glass sponges are built of silica-based minerals which, in turn, make exceptional fibre-optic properties. Mollusc shells are made of calcareous, aragonite, or calcite, then achieve stiffness and toughness higher than that of their pure inorganic counterparts. A shrimp’s dactyl club exhibits tough and exceptional damage tolerance properties due to the complex bioapatite-based mineralized structure. As with all these biominerals, the structural design elements are composed of biopolymers, such as collagen, chitin, silk, keratin, and proteoglycans, and are hierarchically assembled in parallel to form microfibrils, fibrils, or fibres, depending upon the particular system involved. The properties of biominerals are far superior compared to human-made materials, and the current understanding of their formation is far from complete. It is indeed necessary to learn from nature. The structural lessons gained from the study of these biocomposites could thus provide important design insights into the fabrication of tough layered inorganic–organic hybrid materials/morphologies that could always have fresh surfaces to do specific jobs.

Therefore, you are invited to submit manuscripts that focus on biomineralization and biomineral characterization as well as biomimetic design and that will be highly beneficial to society.

Dr. Oluwatoosin Agbaje
Dr. Olev Vinn
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• biomineralization
• biomaterials
• apatite structure
• mollusc shell
• extracellular matrix
• fossilized biominerals
• biomimetic mineralization
• advanced functional materials
• lessons from nature
• materials science

• Biomineralization and Biominerals: Lessons from Mineral-Producing Organisms in Minerals (10 articles)